Biography - Oliver S. Baird
OLIVER S. BAIRD, of the firm of Baird Bros., dealers in hardware and
tinware at No. 1242 O street, is an intelligent, wide-awake man, whose fine
business talents are gaining him an assured place among the leading
merchants of Lincoln. He was born in Clinton County, Pa., Nov. 22, 1840, and
is a son of James H. and Catherine (Stout) Baird, natives respectively of
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, his father born in 1804, and his mother in
1814. His father was early in life a lumberman in Pennsylvania. In 1841 he
migrated to Knox County, Ill., and purchased 320 acres of land, and was
extensively engaged in farming there until his death in 1866, when a
valuable citizen was lost to the community where he resided. He was not a
member of the church, but, his life was characterized by strict honesty and
uprightness, his word always being regarded as good as a bond, and by
industrious labor he had accumulated a comfortable property. In politics he
was a strong Republican. His good wife survived him several years, dying on
the old homestead in Knox County, in 1882. She was a woman of singularly
pure and good character, and, although a member of no church, was,
nevertheless, a sincere Christian.
Our subject was reared on his father's farm in Elba Township, Knox Co.,
Ill., and received the preliminaries of his education in the common schools.
He had not attained his majority when the war broke out, but on the 22d of
September, 1861, he enlisted in the service as a private in Company B, 8th
Missouri Infantry, being mustered in at St. Louis. Thence his regiment was
ordered to Paducah, Ky., and took an active part in the capture of Fts.
Henry and Donelson. Our subject served under both Grant and Sherman; he was
in the battle of Corinth, and in the first attempt to take Vicksburg. He was
at Arkansas Post, and also assisted his comrades in the victorious battle at
Champion Hills. He was present at the siege of Vicksburg, which commenced
May 19, and ended on the 4th of July, 1863. Our subject was sick after that
and went home on a furlough of six weeks, and at the expiration of that time
rejoined his regiment at Iuka, Miss., his fine constitution having quickly
recuperated from the effects of the wound that he received at Vicksburg.
After his return to the South, Mr. Baird participated in the battle of
Chattanooga, and when the order was. given to take the rifle-pits at the
foot of Missionary Ridge, he was one of that company of brave and daring men
who, carrying the works at the base, and entirely forgetful of previous
orders to halt and re-form, dashed on up the ascent, surmounted every
obstacle, unheeding the bullets of the enemy, advanced over the crest, and
an instant later turned the captured rebel guns on the retreating foe, and
the battle of Chattanooga was won. He was subsequently detailed to do duty
in the commissary department, where he was employed until his honorable
discharge, Sept. 22, 1864, at East Point, Ga.
After his retirement from the army Mr. Baird returned to his old home in
Knox County, Ill., and for six months he worked out by the month. But being
ambitious to finish his education, he entered a commercial college at
Chicago, where for two years, 1866 and 1867, he pursued a thorough coursed
study, which well qualified him, for any business that he might adopt in
after life. After leaving school he opened a grocery store in Yates City,
but he afterward sold out and established himself in the dry-goods business
at Gilson.
He next entered into the grain and stock business there, and later carried
on the same in Knoxville very successfully until 1879, when he went to
Maquon, Knox County, and became a hardware merchant. In 1883 Mr. Baird left
the Prairie State to make his home in Lincoln, being attracted hither by the
enterprise and push of the citizens of this city, who were making it a great
commercial center and providing innumerable chances for a live man to
establish himself in a good business, and, at least, make a competency, if
he did not become wealthy. The success that has followed his efforts since
he came has proved the wisdom of his choice of location. He and his brother,
who is also a man of much ability, have leased the present building that
they occupy for seven years; they carry about $8,000 worth of stock, have a
fine assortment of first-class hardware, and have built up a large trade.
Mr. Baird was married, May 25, 1872, to Miss Sarah A. Pickerel [the Illinois
Statewide Marriage Index lists a Oliver L. Baird marrying a Sarah A. Pickrel
in Knox County on May 25, 1871], who was born in Knox County, in 1850,
coming of an old pioneer family of Illinois, who went there from Virginia in
1838. She was a woman of many graces of mind and heart, that made her
beloved by all who came under her influence, and in her death, June 10,
1883, many friends mourned their loss. She was a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and was active in all its good works.
Mr. Baird has ever proved a good citizen, from the time when, as a mere
youth, he went forth to fight his country's battles, and on Southern
battlefields gained a good record as a brave and fearless soldier, to the
present time, when he is doing all that he can to promote the material
welfare of his adopted State. In politics he is a sound Republican;
socially, he is a prominent member of the G. A. R., as represented in this
city by Farragut Post No. 25.
Contributed by Todd Walter, extracted from the 1888 Portrait and Biographical Album of Lancaster County, Nebraska, Chapman Brothers
